Bulldogs dominate Jace Lacoste event

April 14, 2012

Mississippi State track team capped the 2012 Jace Lacoste Invitational Saturday afternoon with 12 wins and 17 additional top five finishes in completely dominating the field.

The Bulldogs claimed the javelin event to get things started when Austin Britton turned in a personal-best 189-01.

James Harris followed on the high jump with a 6-10.75 effort to claim the event title.Â Harris wasnâ€™t done as he later claimed the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.64.

"James Harris had a great day today," MSU track coach Steve Dudley said. "He is an all-around athlete and the fact that he picked up victories in two completely different events further reinforces that."Â

State continued its winning ways in the shot put with Ed Wesela (55-08.50) and Jason Harper (51-02.75) in the triple jump. Nathan Arnett then brought home the 400m hurdles with a time of 51.52.

MSU then picked up a host of top five finishes to close out its day starting with Morrie Turner who was fourth in the long jump with a length of 23-02.75. Following Turner was Carson Britton (4:01.80) and Henry Li (4:03.21) who took second and third in the 1500-meter run respectively, while Juan Sanchez (1:54.82) was fourth in the 800-meter run.

Emanuel Mayers claimed second in the 110-meter hurdles for the Bulldogs, just moments before Starkville native Tavaris Tate (46.56) and Randy Patterson (48.48) finished second and fifth in the 400-meter dash.

â€śCompeting in front of the hometown crowd energizes athletes,â€ť Dudley said. â€ś(Saturday) we capitalized on that energy and used it to our advantage to post one of our most successful meets to date. It especially feels good to have this success at this particular meet, since its purpose is to honor the memory of one of our own.â€ť

The meet is named in honor of late MSU track athlete Jace Lacoste.

Patterson captured his second top five finish as he ran 21.85 to finish fifth in the 200-meter dash, before the 4x400-meter squad of Turner, Christian, Dâ€™Angelo Cherry and Steve Shoto finished fifth with a time of 3:26.81.

Reigning Southeastern Conference Champion Rochelle Farquharson picked up the Lady Bulldogsâ€™ fist victory as she jumped 19-05.25 to take the long jump crown and finished ahead of teammates Sojourner Ewing (19-00.00) and Ebony Brinker (18-11.75) who were second and third. Brinker then picked up a victory of her own in the triple jump with her length of 38-11.50.

Rochelle Farquharsonâ€™s sister Racquel picked up the next MSU victory as she ran 13.40 in the 100-meter hurdles to finish just moments ahead of Keisha Wallace and Brittany Covington, whose times of 13.64 and 14.80 placed them second and fourth respectively.

Racquel Farquharson then followed her hurdle victory with a stint in the 200-meter dash where she finished third with a time of 24.20.â€¨Ocian Archer (56.17) closed out the individual competition with her third place finish in the 400-meter dash, before joining her teammates for a couple of relay victories. First up was the 4x100-meter squad of Jody-Ann Muir, Kanishia Carey, Ra. Farquharson and Archer who ran a winning time of 46.51, followed by the 4x400-meter foursome of Covington, Archer, Chelsea Rae Smyth and Carey whose time of 3:45.33 placed them first.â€¨

Mississippi State will be back in action on Friday at the Auburn Invitational.